Today most marketers agree (in theory), that video is the BEST medium to attract, connect and engage a target audience. This is probably why the term “Video Marketing” seem omnipresent at any marketing conversation today. While the meaning of “Video Marketing” seems to be pretty straightforward, it begs to be defined and differentiated so that every business owner understands the question: What is Video Marketing 2017.
There are two entirely different approaches that engulf the term “ Video Marketing”:
(1) Marketing “With” Video.
(2) Marketing “A” Video.
Let’s break it down further…
Marketing “With” Video
This term usually involves creating an awareness of a product, service, idea, or a concept using video. These videos can range from informing, educating, entertaining or (in most cases) selling. These types of marketing campaigns DO NOT rely on a single video. Instead it involves a range of different videos to promote it’s service or product. These can range from explainer videos (which describe what the company does and what they sell), customer testimonials, product videos, how-to videos, live events videos, etc.
69% percent of total Internet traffic will be video by 2018 – Cisco
A robust video marketing campaign will also strategize what type of video will generate maximum bang for the buck depending on the website it is hosted or featured. While Youtube® remains the best free resource to host online videos, there are other video hosting platforms that has mushroomed in to prominence. The same Youtube® video might not yield the same success on a different hosting site that may have shorter video length requirements like Vine® and Instagram®.
15 second Instagram videos have twice the engagement than of Instagram photos – Instagram
Other strategies may include incorporating video to a newsletter, e-mail marketing campaigns or a promotion.
A good video marketing campaign will also gather video analytics on user engagement, view duration, viewer demographics, traffic sources, and other actionable data that can be put to use for future productivity. Marketing “with” video should accommodate change and improvisation based on video analytics. It should also focus on ranking each video, so that the target audience is able to find the video to achieve a desired result (to inform, educate, entertain and sell).
When marketers included a video in an email, the click-through rate increased by 200% – 300% – Forrester
Marketing “A” Video
While the previous concept (Marketing “With” video) relies on videos to be found by searchers looking for particular information, the concept of Marketing “A” Video about building brand awareness of a business/company of their products and services. There is no target audience in this concept, and it’s strategy is based on videos going “viral” through social sharing. These videos are primarily targeted to entertain and less targeted to explain, educate or sell.
64% of consumers are more likely to buy a product after watching a video about it – comScore
The success of these videos relies primarily on social signals (likes, shares, votes, pins, views on social media sites) within the first few days of going live. Therefore, these videos are often accompanied by social media blitzes to generate social signals that depend on the video going viral.
Businesses that engage this strategy have three options:
(1) Hire a professional video marketing company to carry this strategy out.
(2) Manage this strategy with third party software – which allows pushing a single video to different video sharing platforms.
(3) Manage this strategy manually.
While each of the above options has its positives and negatives, each will depend on your budget, time and resources.
59% of viewers will watch a video to completion that is less than one minute – Wistia
Which is better for your business? Marketing “With” Video OR Marketing “A” Video?
Even more important than picking which concept to adopt is the fact that now you know about the two concepts. By understanding and differentiating between the two, I hope you are now able to think clearly and figure out how to use video marketing as part of your overall marketing campaign. I hope this article shed some light on the sluggish mire that you have painfully agonized (in the past) as to what video marketing is, and now see how video can help your business grow.
Good Luck!
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